Superior size and a solid defensive effort paced the Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central Falcons to a 47-32 victory Saturday over the Lenawee Christian Cougars to capture the title in the third annual Siena Heights University High School Holiday Tournament.

The undefeated Falcons (5-0) jumped out to an 11-4 lead and did not allow the Cougars (4-2) to score their first basket until 3:20 was left in the first quarter. LCS coach Scott McKelvey was impressed with the Falcons.

"They are a solid, all-around team," he said. "They've got a lot of different scorers and play a solid team defense."

SMCC used its front court of Jeffery Albright and Bradley Sherman, who are both 6-foot-6, and Chinedu Nwosu, who is 6-3, to keep the Cougars from getting any penetration to the basket. On offense, the Falcons showed enough patience to wear down LCS.

Kevin Woodson, tournament MVP, led all scorers with 23 points. Jalen Porter had 11 to lead the Cougars. They were the only two players in double figures as both teams played solid defense.

"They kept us away from the basket," McKelvey said. "We just couldn't get any second shots."

The SMCC defense limited the Cougars to single digits in each of the first three quarters. LCS hung close to the Falcons for much of the first half, trailing 19-12 at the break.

After scoring the first basket of the second half, the Cougars could get no closer and after Porter hit the second of his three 3-pointers to pull LCS to 24-17, the Falcons shut them down and ran off the last nine points of the quarter to take a 33-17 lead into the fourth quarter. Woodson scored nine points in the fourth quarter as the Falcons lead grew to 20 points before settling into the final 16-point margin.

The all-tournament team included Sherman and Nwosu, Bubba Williams from Hudson and Zach Mellon from Madison.